Monthly Archives: September 2011

Turn your Pointer Sisters record up to full blast, because we’re so excited and we just can’t hide it anymore! And since we kind of got scooped by Amazon.com anyway, we thought it was time we shared the news …

What you see above is not some example of Photoshop foolery. That, our friends, is the very first FAT QUARTERLY BOOK!!! Yes, it’s true — we’ve been collaborating with the amazing team at Lark Crafts to bring our creative vision to life in an entirely new medium. And it’s already on Amazon!!

Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters was born out of our shared history as four modern quilters who came together as a team: specifically, a history of collaborating in swaps and virtual quilting bees. For that reason, we devoted a large portion of our book to quilt blocks — a mix of block patterns and ideas both traditional and modern, classic and original, and all with our own twist. All are perfect for those participating in quilting bees, or who love making sampler quilts, pillows, or projects featuring a single block design. And as a nod to our continued evolution, those block patterns are complemented by a selection of larger sewn project ideas, from placemats to pillows to full-sized quilts, all mixed together with a few surprises.

So why “Shape Workshop”? We decided to organize our block and project tutorials around basic shapes: squares, triangles, circles, diamonds, stars, and more. Almost as soon as we began planning the book, we were amazed at the many different ways in which these basic building blocks of quilting could be interpreted and used. We hope you will be, too.

And, having just recently reviewed the final draft of the book, we can assure you that it’s all brought together in a BEAUTIFUL package. The exquisite photography and gorgeous style of the book have exceeded all of our wildest expectations. We think it will be a title that you’ll look to again and again for inspiration.

Today we wrap up the Shades of Grey Scrap Challenge, sponsored by the lovely Jan DiCintio of Daisy Janie. Our final designer is Melanie O’Brien (@Obrien_Melanie) of A Sewing Journal. A Sewing Journal is your daily dose of sewing and quilting inspiration, featuring a wide variety of sewing projects ranging from quilts to clothing to home decor, along with sewing pattern reviews, book and magazine reviews, interviews, shop and studio tours, tutorials and more. Melanie does a great job in making sure that her site is chock full of both information and inspiration, and you can learn more about both her and A Sewing Journal here.

We hope you enjoyed this Designer’s Challenge! We’re always on the lookout for creative souls to take our challenges. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where we usually put out the calls for participants.

Now, let’s see what Melanie did with her scrap bag!

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As the former owner of online fabric shop, Modern Organic Fabrics, I held on to some of my favorite fabrics from the shop. So when I received the Shades of Grey scrap pack from Jan, I knew I wanted to use it with some of the organic fabrics from my stash. I felt like going in a direction of muted colors rather than high contrast with the greys. I settled on some organic shirtings (the solid greys and purples) and an herbal-dyed organic cambric (the peach color). I wasn’t concerned with the differences in weight and hand as my goal was a sort of harmony in color.

I had originally set out to make a mini-quilt. But a lack of time caused me to switch course and make a long-promised music book tote bag for my oldest daughter. Of course, I switched course after cutting out a bunch of rectangles, so that guided my design for the tote. Like many of you, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to sew. That causes me to consider the usefulness of each and every thing I make. My home is decorated in tones of whites, browns, beiges and yellows. I just couldn’t figure out a place to display a grey and purple mini-quilt in my home. This was causing me quite a bit of dismay and I felt it better to create something I (or my family) would use and love. That was the other reason behind switching to a modern tote bag design.

Shades of Grey is suited particularly well to being cut up and assembled in patchwork. The variety in form, shape and scale of the patterns create a wonderful movement. I loved pairing it with the muted solids where it creates just the perfect amount of interest without being overpowering or loud.

The pattern I used for the bag is the Parent’s Tote Bag from the book Linen Wool Cotton by Akiko Mano. It’s one of my favorite tote bag designs for not only is it simple to put together but I like the overall aesthetic of the floppy bag with gussets. The colors, sizes and patchwork were completely improvisational where I played around with the rectangles until I found a combination I loved. My 10-year-old daughter is thrilled with the colors and the sophistication of the patchwork.

Im a lover of traditional blocks with modern fabrics. The fabrics from Daisy Janie are a perfect modern fabric to go with a simple block which I felt would show off the prints to their best advantage. And Hello – I love grey fabric! I chose not to add any fabrics because I really wanted to hold myself to what was given to me (exception being backing and binding). I opted to make a wall hanging because one of the solid fabrics is this fabulous {what I like to call} martini olive green and my sewing room is that same color. I have the perfect spot to hang it!

I decided to sew the fabrics into 9 patches and make value play an important role in each block. I normally dont hold myself to following the rules of value or negative space. The way I decided to twist it up was to go with a 3 in, 6in and 9in layout. Meaning the largest block would be 9in sq and all other blocks had to be divisible by 3. I ended up making 10 – 3in blocks, 5 – 6in blocks and 2 – 9in blocks. Since I had limited fabric I sewed the two 9in blocks first. I also only had a small amount of the solid red so I knew I had use that in the 3in blocks. I had lots of 1.5″ squares floating around the sewing room.

The wall hanging is 18 inches wide by 24 inches long {18 and 24 both being divisible by 3}.

Deciding how to quilt the hanging was probably the hardest part. I really wanted to do free-motion but I’m horrible at it so I opted to do some straight line quilting. I didnt want it to be heavily quilted. I used blue painters tape to put my first line down across the corner and then used a 4″ ruler to make sure my lines would be evenly spaced. After the quilting was finished I attached the binding by machine.

We couldn’t be more excited to introduce today’s featured designer, Lucie Summers (@lusummers) from “a very flat part of England”. Lu (as she’s known to her friends, which now include all of you) is a surface pattern designer who blogs at summersville and sells some amazing things (including her original artwork, fabric, mugs, and notebooks) in her Etsy shop.

Lu’s appearance on our blog couldn’t have come at a better time as, just this week, she shared the exciting news that she’s the newest designer for Moda Fabrics! Yes, you heard that right. Before too long, you’ll be able to get your hands on Lucie’s debut fabric line for Moda, “summersville“. The colors and prints are brilliant, and so perfectly Lucie. We couldn’t be happier for her. And we hope she’ll remember little ol’ us when it comes time to pass around some early samples of the line. ; )

But enough about summersville (for now). Let’s see what Lucie created with her scrap bag of Daisy Janie‘s Shades of Grey …

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I was so excited when my package of scraps arrived from over the pond – a little package of deliciousness! in with Jan’s beautiful Shades of Grey pieces were some hand dyes in perfect colours for me – teal and light turquoise – just lovely. I’m also a fan of chartreuse with grey and found some suitable hand printed pieces I had hoarded away by the equally lovely Shannon Lamden of Aunty Cookie, just right for adding extra flashes of saturated colour. I decided I really wanted a scrappy look to my cushion with lots of texture so chose one of my own fabrics, Scratch, to complement my selection so far.

Then I got to work! I knew I wanted to have a play with Seminole patchwork, so I cracked open some books, learnt the basic technique, then threw the rule book out of the window. I didn’t want any matching points, so had a great time chopping and sewing my strips so create a very loose zig zag. I lined the cushion with chartreuse green felt – this gives the cushion a little more body, and makes a nice stable yet soft surface for the simple quilting. Plus, if you happen to look inside, it’s a nice little surprise – such small things make me happy!

Shades of Grey was super easy to work with – crisp and soft, and the abundance of grey tones made it a pleasure to mix with other prints and colours. I’m thrilled to bits with the resulting cushion which lives pride of place on an old leather chair – the perfect place to curl up in comfort with a book and a cuppa!

Today’s Shades of Grey Scrap Challenge contribution comes to us from another talented Canadian, Michelle Southern (@KineticQuilts). Michelle is the owner and “head quiltress” (love that title!) of Kinetic Quilts, a unique business in the quilting industry. A self-professed “galpreneur”, Michelle launched Kinetic Quilts in 2010 with the idea of making unique, handmade quilts with a twist: an innovative online quilt label system that she developed herself from scratch. Every one of Michelle’s quilts (including the project she made for this challenge!) is tagged with a claim code that the quilt owner can enter into the Kinetic Quilts website, and receive information about fabrics, batting content, and photos of the quilt being made.

Proving yet again that Fat Quarterly readers are the most creative bunch around, Michelle brought us yet another completely original idea for a scrap project. Let’s learn more about Michelle and take a look at her fab table runner.

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This really was a project where I was completely working outside of my comfort zone – and I totally loved it!

Quilt Block

When I saw the Shades of Grey fabric for the first time, I knew I wanted a quilt block that showcased the large-scale, bold patterns in as big a way as possible. Although I looked online and through every book available I couldn’t find what I wanted. I ended up drafting the pattern myself for a 9″ paper-pieced block. You should know that I do not particularly enjoy paper piecing. The fact that I deliberately chose paper piecing AND also drafted my own pattern for the block should make it pretty obvious how badly I wanted to use this block for my project.

Colour

I have never worked with a grayscale colour scheme before, and finding a background fabric that worked for me was baffling. I had to audition every fabric in my stash (along with every colour, print, and solid in my local fabric store – I was there for hours) before I found that this green batik was the only one that I truly loved. I’d read that some quilters consider a solid black in quilts “bad luck” and so I usually tried to avoid it simply to avoid offending anyone. Using this solid “true” black was another first for me.

Fabric Design

The Shades of Grey line has wonderful, big and bold patterns that I love but made me realize I would typically choose smaller patterns or batiks for my quilts. So I got a crash course in working with blocks, settings, and layouts with large-scale patterns. The fabrics were also much thicker and had more stretch than I was used to so I had to make allowances for this. And stripes – oh my goodness, there were striped fabrics in my scrap package! I cut the stripes into a thin outer border and conquered my fear.

Pieced Backing

To keep with the “scrap” theme of the project I pieced the backing using every last available piece of the Shades of Grey fabric – even for such a small project it was a challenge for me to take the scraps and make them into a single useable section that I could use for the backing.

Quilting

Lastly, when I quilt I tend to use cotton or mono-filament thread. But again, I went flying into the arms of danger and chose a shiny, wrapped rayon thread to quilt the table runner with because it gave just the tiniest bit of sparkle peeking out from its place in the ditch.

Outside of all this fun fabric adventure, the scrap package was sent late, and my sewing machine seized during the project (along with two others I managed to find but could not get working). I also ended up at my doctor’s office on a heart monitor the day I had wanted to send in my completed project. I can’t believe I got it done but I am in love with the results. Every time I look at this table runner I am reminded of what we can do with our creative ideas when we have the chance to challenge ourselves. Although some people said they saw shamrocks within the blocks and fabrics, I definitely see Lily Pads – launching points for our froggy selves to jump from whenever inspiration strikes.

Thank you to Fat Quarterly and Daisy Janie for the opportunity to be a part of this Designer’s Challenge! All in all it was a fun project to be involved in, and I hope that in reading this you will make your next piece one in which you go outside of your OWN comfort zone! For more information on the products used with this table runner, enter the code 30gL6Nde at my Online Quilt Label System on my Kinetic Quilts website (http://kineticquilts.com).

Today’s fun scrap project comes to us from our friend from the north, Canadian quilter Cara Wilson (@caraquilts) of Cara Quilts. Besides being a prolific quilter, sewist, and pattern designer, Cara is the originator and hostess of the fun (and addictive) Talkin’ Tuesdays program on Twitter.

Don’t know about #talknt? It’s a live chat that Cara hosts each and every Tuesday evening on Twitter, bringing together dozens of like-minded quilters for fun conversation and sharing. You can almost always find members of the Fat Quarterly team hanging out with Cara & the gang on Tuesday evenings.

We knew Cara would create something great from Daisy Janie‘s Shades of Grey scrap bag, and she didn’t disappoint. Below, Cara not only describes her fun project, but gives enough tips so that you could make your own. Let’s have a look at Cara’s fun & funky lunch bag.

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A great thing about scraps, especially strips and squares, is the ability to sew them together to create new patchwork yardage! This is a great way to make really unique projects, whether they be bags like this or applique. When you have scraps from one project, especially if they are from a fabric line or the same designer, makes it really easy to make beautiful projects instead of just tossing the scraps, be they tossed to the scrap bin or the trash.

The fabrics I received were Daisie Janies absolutely gorgeous organics. These have such a beautiful, strong feel to them. I would never have guessed in a million years that they were organic, environmentaly friendly from start to finish. The are totally top of the line quality and worth every cent.

For this challenge I was lucky to be given several larger pieces, along with some smaller scraps. Because Daisy Janie is all about being environmentally friendly I wanted to keep that theme in mind when I went to work on my project so decided to make a re-usable lunch bag.

I simply cut and sewed pieces together until I had a large rectangle, the exact size is just dependent on what size and shape of containers you like to take in your lunch, and folded it in half lengthwise. I then sewed down the long edges and marked 3″ up and in on both sides. Drew a line connecting the marks and sewed on the line. I trimmed off the triangles and turned it right sides out again.

Because I wanted this to be easy to wipe clean for the occasional spill I made up a liner with laminate fabric, exactly the same way I did the bag, except leaving a 2-3″ gap for turning.

I also wanted a handle so grabbed some more of the scraps and sewed them into a 5″x 15″ strip. The length just depends on how long you want it to be, a hand handle or a shoulder strap. I folded it like bias binding, the folded it in half again, so the raw edges where encased, and sewed down both sides.

With the outer shell right sides out I placed it inside the liner, which is right side in, so the rights sides where facing each other, and place the strap in between the two, with about 1″ sticking up past the edges, and sewed all around the edge. Turn right sides out and stitch the gap closed. I like to add top stitching to my bags to help keep their shape.

Going with the whole lunch accessories you could also make reusable napkins, a coffee cozy or utensil bag.

Remember just because you have scraps doesn’t mean they have to stay that way!

Are you enjoying the Shades of Grey Scrap Challenge so far? We’ve already shown two amazing pillow designs that utilize the line fantastically, and get ready for a third. That’s because today we are featuring Nicole Vos van Avezathe (@FollowBunny) of Follow the White Bunny, her wildly creative blog and embroidery pattern business. Embroidery is Nicole’s main game, but she’s also a sewist and quilter with a great eye for color and design.

Today, Nicole’s bringing not only a great pillow design, but a fun back story for her creative process. Enjoy!

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When I opened my scrap package, I instantly loved the Shades of Grey fabrics, all of them. But the Ragg Tagg is my absolute favourite; it reminds me of feathers. During my holiday in Wales (UK) this summer I visited an Owl centre. I even got to stroke some of the Owls — such sweet, soft creatures.

So Owls were the first birds that sprang to mind. But because Owls have been omnipresent in crafty land for the last couple of years I contemplated other birds (Marabou and Stork) before returning to the Owl. I also liked the idea of making a craft bag so I started to make a front panel of 2.5” strips of the different Shades of Grey fabrics (+ one other yellow organic fabric that was in the bag) and an appliqué Owl. In my mind the vertical strips are like trees or woods behind the Owl… The First Owl I made was a very retro sixties looking Owl. A bit abstract and Very Grey; the Grey didn’t work too well with the back ground of Shades of Grey fabrics I had made and my husband didn’t like the Owl.

So I threw the Very Grey Retro Owl out and made a Snow Owl out of white felt. That worked much better! I made a patchwork belly of tiny scraps of Shades of Grey and some other scraps I had and appliquéd it to the felt. I hand sewed the Owl on the background with a blanket stitch. I put a little bit of filling between fabric and felt to give my Owl more ‘body’. From the ‘Ragg Tagg’ fabric I made a wing and put a vintage button (formerly one of the eyes of Very Grey Retro Owl) on top. Eyes, beak and feet were embroidered on. At that point I still intended to make a bag. It was finished with upcycled lining (an old pillowcase) and all and it only needle handles. Sadly I didn’t receive the nice bamboo bag handles I had ordered in time and the handles I sourced locally were too small.

So on the eleventh hour I ruthlessly (and rather desperately) cut into the handle-less bag I had made, ‘rescued’ my Owl panel (including the vertical strips) and moved on to plan B (or by that time: plan Z): a pillow. When I sewed on the mustard yellow (or is it ‘Ochre’?) bit on the side, it looked kind of empty to me. Recently I came across an awesome book from the early seventies online, featuring lots and lots embroidered letter designs. This book inspired me to make the ‘retro’ letters on the Mustard coloured bit of the pillow. It’s a simple envelope style slightly rectangular pillow. For the back I used grey linen from my stash and I added an old white lace trim (it was exactly the right size) to the closing flap. I’m really pleased with the result and it looks awesome in my living room.

I really liked working with Shades of Grey. The fabric is soft but has a nice weight to it, making it perfect for stuff like bags and pillows. I have put some of the challenge’s ‘leftovers’ aside to use for a quilt for my living room as well. The ‘modest’ prints and the limited palette makes Shades of Grey super easy to combine with other colours and fabrics. I absolutely love the modern yet retro designs, very versatile. I’m certainly going to order some more, maybe I will make a Shades of Grey Marabou or Stork after all…

Today’s guest designer for the Daisy Janie Shades of Grey scrap challenge is Paloma Nunez-Regueiro (@3KitchenFairies), who blogs about sewing, quilting, embroidery, and her beautiful daughters at Three Kitchen Fairies. I’m in awe of what she created with her scrap bag, and think you will be, too!

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When I first got the Daisy Jane Shades of grey Fabrics, my first thought was of a modern quilt. The designs of these prints are really beautiful, and unique. They definitely tickled my mind and the ideas started to pour. I knew I wanted to showcase every fabric in the bundle. I was also given the choice of using some solid color fabric that were included in the package, and anything else I wanted to throw in the mix; the white background is the only fabric I added to this project.

The wavy lines in this project are basically Wagon Wheel variation. In order to make more curves per line, I made a different size spoke template for this patten. The half circles and their centers were hand appliqué.

After looking at it for a few days I decided it was a good idea to turn it into a pillow, that way I can keep it around the house instead of keeping it on the to-do list as a quilt. It was a joy to work with these fabrics.

Thanks to Fat Quarterly , and Daisy Jane for giving me the opportunity to share this project with you.

Hot on the heels of our Basic Grey Designer’s Challenge, we’re thrilled to bring you another challenge with new rules, fresh faces, and more eye candy than you can shake a stick at!

It’s no secret that we’re smitten with Daisy Janie‘s Shades of Grey fabric line. The prints are fabulous as coordinates to so many other lines, yet are versatile and beautiful enough to stand on their own. So after we spoke with Daisy Janie’s Jan DiCintio a while back, an idea was born: let’s see what some of our talented and creative readers can do when armed only with a scrap bag of Shades of Grey and their ideas. We think their creations will blow you away.

First up is our friend Thomas Knauer (@waycoolkid) of Thomas Knauer Sews. Thomas, a fine artist and former academic, quite literally burst onto the sewing and blogging scene last year with his eclectic style and infectious spirit. His first fabric line with Andover Fabric, Pear Tree, will be available soon, with his second already on the horizon. We know there are great things in store for Thomas.

Let’s take a look at what he did with his Shades of Grey scrap bag …

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I love pillows!!! I admit it. Can’t say that I always have, but ever since I started sewing I have become a total junky. I love their self-contained nature; they’re a little bit of soft and pretty to carry around wherever you go in the house, and sometimes out.

So, when I received my fabulous package of Shades of Grey from Jan at Daisy Janie I immediately saw three pillows; in fact two of the designs instantly entered my head, fully formed. Jan’s designs just called out to me lickety-split. For my designs I really wanted to respond to the specifics of the prints; to pick out an element from each to focus on and enhance in each pillow. Jan’s designs felt simultaneously drawerly and architectural, which in my book is no small feat (but always an excellent one). Hence I wanted to find ways to work with it that maintained a certain stability and weight at the same time they emphasized the feel of handwork.

And just my luck, Jan included a fabulous deep yellow, an earthy red, and an olive-y green (all Bauhaus staples which made playing off of the rich grey tones easy, and really called for me to do asymmetrical composition). Thanks for the great fabric picks for my scrap bag Jan; you made the fun of playing with Shades of Grey easy…

So, the pillows:

The first one I made focuses on the River Rock print. I had just come back from a trip to NYC (and Purl Soho) and picked of a fantastic pack of vibrant felt. It felt (pardon the pun) like a match made in heaven. I wanted to emphasize the wonderfully wonky shapes of the River Rock pebbles and what better way to do that than with color.

So i pieced together what I think is a right nice composition and then went to town with my felt and a bit of embroidery floss. Any excuse to do some hand-stitching will always make me happy.

Next up was Jan’s Pinstripe. When I opened my package of scraps the phrase “read between the lines” popped into my head, and from there this pillow was almost instantly done. I knew that I wanted to play between the stripes, to separate them a little bit and see what color might do in the spaces in between. I really let the colors decide for themselves for this one. I didn’t do a single sketch (really rare for me) and just stitched away.

The last pillow took me the longest to figure out. I quickly decided that I wanted to fill a bunch of the Dapple Dots with French knots, but there were so many options. I spent a long time staring at the prints before I settled on an approach. For me the biggest struggle was in that I wanted to emphasize the lightest print in the collection (always a challenge for me). I did about a zillion sketches for this one until I finally settled on a design.

I see this as a very vertical structure, but with all the prints (and French knots) moving horizontally. I kinda fell back on one of my tried and true design tricks for making a simple design feel a lot busier, and for this one I wanted lots of stuff going on. In fact, that is why I almost always do things in groups of three, so I can add in a kitchen-sink design. But of course, I was also just giddy to have a chance to do scores of French knots!!!

So, there they are. Thanks to Fat Quarterly for letting me play along, and thanks to Jan for your amazing designs!!! Love, love, love them!!! You are, of course, a total rock star!!!

We think you’ll love what Shari created, and we hope that you enjoyed this fun Designer’s Challenge. Stay tuned to FQ for more Designer’s Challenges … if you’d like to participate in a future challenge, we’d love to have you!

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When I first got the Basic Grey Canvas I had so many ideas popping through my head I didn’t know, which way I wanted to execute until I got my Hoo’s in the Forest and knew instantly that I wanted to showcase the fabric.

I simply measured the squares and cut them to fit to slightly overlap the lines and touch the corners. Scraps work perfect for this little project. Then I randomly glued them with No Sew Glue to hold them in place. I love how the combination of colors coordinate and pop out each design. Its a little bit corky and abstract with the trees and fruit…but that adds to the whimsy don’t you think?

Then I had to add some Sew Together buttons and ribbon (yep my cherries from Hoo’s in the Forest!) I just popped them on randomly, wanting to leave some space and dimension to focus in on the fabric. It’s all about keeping it simple and clean with this deco canvas.

Would I love to work with some of Basic Grey’s other canvases? Absolutely, it was fun to do a simple, creative project that can spotlight what I love and that’s fabric and design. There is no right or wrong way to a project, it’s all about letting your hair down and getting into the creative groove by trying something new and different.

Wouldn’t it be fun to do a family motto canvas? I might just head out and get another one. Thanks to Basic Grey and Fat Quarterly for letting me participate in such a fun crafting designer challenge!